The invention relates to a device for contactless communication between a surgical apparatus and at least one surgical instrument or similar accessory that can be used with said surgical apparatus and the use of a writable and readable memory device that is connected to an antenna for the instrument.
In the fields of high-frequency surgery (“HF surgery”), cryosurgery or even water jet surgery, a plurality of instruments are used which may be operated within a surgical system with a surgical apparatus. Instruments of this kind are, for example, instruments comprising electrodes for HF surgery or applicators for supplying water to the area on which the operation is performed. Probes are used in the field of endoscopy.
Due to the plurality of extremely different instruments or accessories in a surgical system, it is necessary to provide an automatic recognition of the instruments so that the corresponding surgical apparatus can supply the parameters required for the operation of the respective instrument, such as the suitable voltage or water pressure. Otherwise, users would have to enter or set all parameters themselves by hand, i.e., before the actual use, a time-consuming configuration phase would be necessary. In addition, manual input can represent an error source which is dangerous for the patient, in particular because the user will not have all parameter values at hand.
Various solutions for automatic instrument recognition are known from the prior art. For example, electronic memories, such as an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (“EEPROM”), are provided on the instrument in order to be able to transmit data via the instrument to the surgical apparatus. Instrument recognition is effected by cable connection or also by wireless means.
The EEPROM requires at least one additional plug-in contact in order to be able to establish the electric connection between the apparatus and the memory chip in the instrument or in the accessory. This means that use in a standard plug-in connector, such as a neutral-electrode connector or 3-pin connector known from HF surgery, is not possible.
Known from DE 10 2005 044 918 A1, is a device for contactless identification and communication between a HF generator and an instrument connected thereto. It is now possible to exchange information by radio contact between the instrument and HF generator via a transponder device (with an antenna for the instrument), arranged in an instrument connector, and a writing and reading unit (with an antenna for the generator), again arranged on the generator. However, in DE 10 2005 044 918 A1, the writable and readable data memory in the transponder device is only suitable for a restricted exchange of information.